


Powerful Men

by iam93percentstardust



Series: 1000 Ways to Fall in Love [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, M/M, Minor Character Death, Student Tony Stark, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25007026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iam93percentstardust/pseuds/iam93percentstardust
Summary: Steve is New York’s scariest mob boss, soft only for one person - his boyfriend, Tony.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: 1000 Ways to Fall in Love [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1404478
Comments: 15
Kudos: 300





	1. Chapter 1

Tony is asleep on his lap, brown curls tickling Steve’s chin. He gently moves Tony’s head so that it’s tucked into his shoulder instead and no longer distracting him from the man kneeling in front of him. 

“You want to tell me how an entire shipment just mysteriously goes missing?” he asks. He doesn’t really need to ask. He knows what happened. Tony had brought him the information hours ago. He’s not sure how his enemies decided that Tony was nothing more than a glorified whore when he’s smarter than most of them put together but he can’t deny that there’s a benefit to the underestimation.

So he already knows. But he’s curious to know what Rumlow says.

To his credit, Rumlow isn’t even shaking as he says, “I don’t know, boss. Boat showed up at the dock, just like we were told, but the crates weren’t on it.”

“Hmm,” Steve says thoughtfully. “The crates just…weren’t there. And you didn’t think to look for them?”

“Figured they fell off into the harbor.”

“Right. A whole shipment of black market weapons and they were all unsecured.”

“Boss-”

Steve holds up a hand for him to shut up. “See, here’s what _I_ think happened: I think those weapons were on the ship and you took them off and you sold them to Hydra. Sound about right?”

Rumlow gapes at him. “I would never-”

“How ‘bout we ask the other person who was there, hmm?” With one finger under his chin, he turns Tony’s face toward his. He kisses him slow, thoroughly until Rumlow is squirming in discomfort and Tony is purring his delight. “Wake up, baby doll. Need ya to tell me what happened to Rumlow’s shipment.”

Tony blinks slowly. He turns a distasteful glance on Rumlow and says, “Schmidt was there, waiting with him. He sold the shipment for three thousand dollars and a penny Schmidt found at the dock.”

“I’ve been watching you, Rumlow,” Steve says harshly. “For months. Shipments going missing, tradeoffs gone wrong, and all of them tie back to you. ‘Course I didn’t think it could be _you_. You’re a trusted lieutenant. It was Tony’s suggestion that it had to be someone I trusted and that’s when I remembered - you put a payment down on a house recently, didn’t ya? Paid a pretty hefty sum in cash too.”

“Boss, I didn’t-”

Steve picks up the gun on his desk and calmly points it at him. Rumlow goes silent though his eyes are wide and desperate.

“Betcha didn’t think I would send Tony after you.” He bounces Tony a little on his knees, the brunet biting back a squeal as it jostles the plug in him. “That’s what you don’t seem to get about him: he’s a lot more than the painted doll you think he is - which is why he took video of the handoff.” He puts down the gun and picks up Tony’s phone, holding it out so Rumlow can see the footage. “That’s you, isn’t it? So not only are you a traitor but you’re lying to me about it.”

He sets the phone back down and shifts Tony so that he’s turned back into his shoulder. He doesn’t want Tony to see this. “But that’s not going to be a problem anymore. I want you to give Schmidt a message. Run along, crawl back to whatever hole Schmidt is hiding in, tell him that I’ll ferret out whatever rats he’s hiding in my organization.” He waves his hand at the door. “You’re free to go.”

Rumlow gasps out his thanks and stumbles toward the door. 

Steve shoots a text to Bucky: _Make sure Rumlow ends up on Schmidt’s doorstep._ Then, _Cancel my meetings for this afternoon. I’m busy._

He looks back up. Rumlow has almost made it to the door. He tucks Tony’s head into his neck and murmurs, “Don’t watch, baby doll.” He picks up the gun, cocks it, and aims in one smooth move.

_Bang!_


	2. Chapter 2

Tony has had what might be the longest day of his life. Grad school shouldn’t be this hard. School has never been this hard for him and it isn’t even his project that’s causing the problem! It’s Dr. Martin. Fucking Dr. Martin who thinks it’s okay to interrupt his presentation and judge him for how his data looks.

“Well, at least it’s _pretty_ ,” Dr. Martin had sneered condescendingly like Tony hadn’t been breaking all the known laws of robotics with DUM-E.

He’s known since he stepped foot on campus that Dr. Martin has a problem with him but he would have never thought that the guy would go so far as to try to sabotage Tony’s seminar presentation.

Dick.

He presses his glass against his forehead, trying to calm himself down before he does something drastic and stupid - like setting Dr. Martin’s office on fire. He doesn’t have Howard’s protection anymore, gave it all up when he left New York to set out on his own.

Yeah, it’s been a long day and it only gets worse when some guy sits down next to him and starts babbling about the quality of the grapes in the beer. Doesn’t this idiot know that there are no grapes in beer?

He thinks about telling him that that’s wine he’s thinking of but he instead decides to just ignore him - right up until the guy puts a hand on his arm. Tony blinks at it, puts his glass down, and then very slowly says, “Get your hand off of me.”

He knows he doesn’t have Howard’s silkily dangerous quality to his voice yet but he still isn’t expecting the guy to laugh him off, “What a kidder!”

Tony narrows his eyes. “I said, ‘Get your hand off of me.’”

“Oh come on. You can’t be serious,” the guy says. “You’ve been sending me signals all night.”

What fucking signals? Tony’s been staring into his glass all night. He sighs, preparing to get himself thrown out of his favorite bar for having to take care of this asshole.

Then someone demands, in a voice that sounds just as hard and dangerous as Howard does, “Don’t touch him.”

“What?” the guy asks.

“What?” Tony asks, turning slightly to try to catch a glimpse of the newcomer. Oh. That’s - that’s Steve Rogers. Tony knows him, remembers that ridiculous presentation Obie had put together a couple years back about the new kid on the block. He’s the one that’s been encroaching on Stark territory, the reason Tony decided to leave the family business.

What is he doing in Boston?

The idiot recovers quickly enough and says, “Hey, I saw him first.”

Rogers raises an unamused eyebrow. “I don’t care if you saw him first. He told you not to touch him so. Don’t. Touch. Him.”

The guy peers at him and then glances at Tony like he’s expecting Tony to say something. He obliges him.

“Shoo.”

The guy mutters something about how they’re both going to regret this but leaves.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony says lazily. He steals another look at Rogers. Good lord but his _muscles_ have muscles, don’t they? “Tony Stark.”

“Steve Rogers.”

“Yeah, I know. What brings you to Boston, Mr. Rogers?”

Rogers waves the bartender over. “Whiskey neat,” he orders. To Tony, he says, “Vacation.”

“Lie,” Tony comments. “What really brings you here?”

“No, I’m really here on vacation.” Tony gives him a deeply unimpressed look and Rogers sighs. “I’m meeting with the O’Donoghues but my lieutenant really did tell me to take a couple days off.”

“And you just so happened to end up in my bar?”

Rogers shrugs unconcernedly. “Might be a coincidence. Might not. Have a drink with me?”

“What makes you think I want to drink with you anymore than I wanted to drink with that idiot?” Tony asks.

“For one thing, I’m not going to tell you about the grapes in this whiskey,” Rogers says with a conspiratorial grin. Tony can’t help but laugh. “Come on, I’ve got a private table and everything. Just hear me out and if you don’t like what I have to say, I’ll cut you loose. No harm, no foul.”

Tony drums his fingers on the bar for a moment, considering his offer. Oh what the hell. He’s curious to know what Rogers wants from him and besides, he’s never had a lick of self-preservation. “Five minutes. That’s all I’m giving you.”

“Five minutes,” Rogers agrees. The bartender passes him his drink. Rogers looks at it for a second. “We’ll take the bottle.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Collection of headcanons from this verse requested by thxngam

1\. Tony refuses to go back to take down Obie and take over his father’s mob but he’s more than willing to let Steve do it. He does agree, however, to give Steve any information he may need and when Steve asks him why, Tony just shrugs and says, “Because your dick game is A+.”

(He thinks it’s cute when Steve blushes after he says that)

2\. Steve is certain that Tony’s going to get bored of being his kept boy and demand his part of their territory back but Tony never does. Tony is perfectly content to spend his days finishing up his degree and his nights in Steve’s bed.

3\. Steve is as ruthless as the rumors say but only toward the idiots who can’t follow orders or the people trying to scam him or move in on his territory. Otherwise, he’s remarkably kind to people who are deserving and it takes a while for Tony to reconcile the Steve who says such nice things when he fucks him with the Steve who comes home with blood on his hands and a terrifying look in his eyes. Howard hadn’t been like that. Howard had been all business all the time.

4\. Tony’s graduation ceremony is attended by half the New York mob - and three dozen or so undercover cops, FBI agents, and weirdly, Interpol though he doesn’t know how Steve got into Interpol’s watchlist.

5\. Tony is kidnapped exactly once. Steve nearly razes Hell’s Kitchen to the ground and it becomes apparent, very quickly, that Tony is, under no circumstances, leverage to use against Steve Rogers.


	4. Chapter 4

“So let me get this straight,” Tony says. He’s been sitting at Steve’s table in the back of the bar for the last thirty minutes, a lot longer than the five minutes he’d originally promised him. “You’re telling me that Obie - who helped raise me by the way - had my parents murdered - which was ruled an accident by three different investigators, one of whom I hired myself - just so he could take over Howard’s business and now you want my help killing Obie and gaining control of Stark territory.”

Steve drains the last of the whiskey bottle. “Yep.”

Tony drums his fingers on the table and then says, “Nah.”

He almost grins at Steve’s dumbfounded expression but he hides it with a sip of his own drink and a casual shrug. 

“Nah?” Steve repeats.

“I’m not interested.”

Steve leans forward. “I don’t think you understand-”

“Oh, I understand perfectly. Really, I do. Fact is, I probably understand it better than you do. See, this is the kind of thing that happens in Howard’s line of work. Betrayal, murder, it’s all part of the game. It sucks that my mom got caught up in it but I’m not going to put my own neck on the line just so you can expand your territory. If Obie really had my parents killed, then he managed to pay off three separate investigators, including one that he should have never known about. I’m not stupid enough to get mixed up with that.”

“I promise we’ll keep you safe,” Steve says seriously.

Tony laughs, glancing away at the bar and flagging down a waiter for another drink. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Stevie boy.”

“I’m not. When I make a promise, I never break it.”

“Okay, Rapunzel,” Tony snorts. Steve frowns confusedly and Tony gives him an incredulous look. “Seriously, you’ve never watched that movie? Never mind. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re gonna have to launch that revolution of yours on your own.”

Steve sits back, resting his arm across the top of the booth. “Okay, then. Thanks for hearing me out at least,” he says.

“That’s it?” Tony asks. “You’re just gonna give up after you spent all this time laying out the facts for me?”

Steve shrugs. “I know when I’ve been beat,” he replies casually. “Will you let me buy your drinks though?”

He narrows his eyes suspiciously. “Why?”

A slow smirk spreads across Steve’s face. “Cause then you might let me walk you home.”

Tony pauses, tilting his head to the side as he considers him. Steve’s attractive - very much so. Muscles that look like he could pin him down in a heartbeat, blond hair that Tony wants to clench in his fists, eyes he could drown in. He grins back and says, “Think I can do that.”


End file.
